“Open Your Mouth And Eat What I Give You”

That’s from Ezekiel 2.8. Let me not act like the prophecy below is just a guess. It’s terrifying. Mainly because one part has already come to pass and another seems to be in progress.

What else can be said? I have published it, tagged it private, published it again….hid the light under a bushel….the responsibility of prophecy can be cumbersome.

This prophetic word is underway: The Prophecy June 5, 2020

Answering the Call of God: Resolving Social Conundrums & Social Kindness Misgivings

Have Your Say, Everyone Else Does

I’m not good at handling social persecution when it comes to some of my positions on the Word of God. I find them to be truth but no one has perhaps asked me for that. And truth hurts sometimes. I’ve been bold and given the word of truth in the past and received a good deal of backlash. I know that everyone has a viewpoint and good reasons for that viewpoint, and who am I to think I’m so right? And when individuals start pulling the sympathy card, I tend to fold, feel bad because what I’ve said directly affects them, their loved ones or people they know, and go away thinking how inconsiderate of their feelings I’ve been.

I’m also fiercely angry about the arrogance of the Church, Her greed and Her Pride. These are huge monsters (Arrogance, Pride and Greed) to stand in front of and to speak against with the corrective word of God.

Teaching and impartation is one thing when someone wants to find truth, I’ll give it directly. However, unrequested social media postings that directly hurt people’s feelings have been a problem that has kept me silent for several years now. I’ve kept silent, even to my own peril concerning things like Covid – which I am going to bring up from the depths at a later time – best to keep weaving the whip until my anger subsides a little more, for it is great.

Heed the Calling Over Your Life, Set Social Kindness Misgivings Aside

I have things to say. Things I know God has put on my heart. They are beautiful things, revelatory things, weightier matters of the heart and also….divisive. And this stops me when I see their faces wondering how I could say things so hurtful. But the road to hell is broad and what I don’t want to be is irresponsible for NOT holding up the sign saying ‘you’re going the wrong damn way.’

“Do not assume that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Matthew 10.34

I can’t refute the Lord here. He said He give us, His children, peace (John 14.27). He does not say He brings peace to the world. The world is headed for a catastrophe, a prophetic judgement to end all previous dispensations. Will the world end? No, it will be made new,

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away..”  Revelation 21.1

And again,

“And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” 1 Corinthians 7.31

“The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” 1 John 2.17

Ignoring the Obvious

But the world will end for many. And how will any of them survive if the word of God isn’t used to build a bridge that some can use to escape the flames of Hell? If no instruction is given on how to mind the gap between the highway to hell and narrow path of salvation? The vast expanse of that gap reaching to the endless abyss of death without Christ?

I always had this idea that being a peacemaker was the best course of action, and honestly, it has served me well and made many take a second look at Jesus and the Christian individual. We aren’t all the same. We have two year olds in our ranks having fits about everything, we have teenagers thinking they know everything, ‘kicking against the pricks’ to find some autonomy from this big ‘Father God’ in the sky and elders who think they have nothing else to learn. I know all of this well because I have been ALL of these stages, sometimes all at once and sometimes we all regress, right?

Hard Decisions, Ultimate Sacrifices

I have to decide, am I going to play the peacemaker…there is a place for that, absolutely. Or, am I going to bring the sword? The key is this: listening carefully to understand exactly what God is calling you, as the individual child, to do. Because as good as bringing the sword is and as much as we need it, you will fail if the calling and anointing isn’t bestowed upon you by God to do so.

I want to be the peacemaker. It’s easy and no one can accuse you of much. But this is not my calling.

I’m called to bring the sword.

Mistakes Inform the Individual, Though They Burn. Perpetual Darkness Consumes Entirely, Withering Away the Mind, Spirit and Body

And it scares me to death…mainly because I know and understand His power, and I don’t trust myself to adhere to the Lord enough to bring the destruction that is holy, that lays waste to what evil has planted, tills the fallow ground and plants the good. Instead I fear I’ll tear down what annoys me personally, because you can do that if you are undisciplined and unwilling to yield to His Lordship, ask Elisha:

2 Kings 2.23-24

From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!”  He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys.”

This is where faith is of key importance, faith in God to step out knowing He will be there to hold us up. What’s worse, making mistakes? Or living the rest of your life in the belly of the whale? Sometimes, though pounding on the inner lining of the behemoth’s belly gets you puked up with all manner of disgustingness, at least you can breath the air and go do what God has called you to do.

Time for a thorough washing~

just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless..

Ephesians 5.26

Featured Image by Herbert Mandel, oil on canvas 1984

A New Day

The dawn of 2023 is upon us, all the inhabitants of the earth. Something new is riding on the air, an anointing to shift all things. God has been listening, and I sense He is going to show up like the still small voice after the raging storm. The world isn’t going to notice at first, they can’t discern the language spoken between Christ and His Bride. He’s nudging her to awaken from her slumber and it’s going to be an interesting year prophetically.

The power of music, the joy and expression of song. Let’s take a moment to admire the marvelous talents and gifts given only to humans. I love the playfulness here. He’s not afraid of the note, the score or the melody. He inspired me today. It’s my kind of happy introvert song too: leave me alone for a moment, come see me later if you want to, and know that I need you either way, darling…

“All At Sea” performed by Jacob Collier (live at Cambridge)

The Process of Unearthing

Rummaging through the art room I dug out the digital piano. (I told you I was inspired.) I found it nice and preserved. Back in 2019 I had the privilege of taking piano lessons. I learned a great deal. Then came notice of grand jury duty, every weekday eight hours a day for the entire month of December. That beast ate my schedule. I had to drop the lessons….then along came 2020 and suffice it to say, the pursuit was abandoned.

Finding a place for it will require moving out other things, a long chain-reaction process of buried parts of myself it would seem.

Random person: What do you do for a living?

Me: I’m an archeologist.

RP: Oh wow, where’s the excavation site?

Me: My life.

RP: …

Winter is a great season to clear things out and get organized during the cold winter months. I love snowy days, everything is quiet and peaceful. It’s symbolic of the dormant phase of nature where things die off, energy is conserved and I discard what I don’t need in order to prepare for the spring growth. April babies find great joy in this process. We just tend to get distracted during the growing phase and wander off somewhere else…

Looking onward into 2023 when something is enriching to the soul, when we are curious about it and we have the opportunity to explore it, then why not take it? We need to be less perfectionistic and more exploratory; have some fun, you know? Who knows how far we can go in our calling if we allow ourselves the freedom to play and have fun~

Might as well find out. Time is short.

Putting Those Things Behind Us and Pressing Forward into the New Day

2022 will soon come to a close. Let’s take the opportunity to ‘close out’ a few other things with it, shutting the door behind us as it goes. The defeats and losses can be laid to rest satisfactorily. Perhaps in the death of those seeds, life will spring up.

“Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.”

Present your heart to God and watch Him anoint you with the fire of the Holy Spirit. The world will be changed, even if it’s quiet and simple in the beginning. Making a positive change in one person’s life changes everything for them for the rest of their life. It’s not a small thing.

“No eye has seen, and no ear has heard, nor has entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

I hope this has encouraged you in some way. Have a beautiful New Year everyone, may God bless and prosper and keep you always~

Twilight of Summer Long Past

I’m glad to see this summer pass on into the infinite past. It hasn’t been an easy one. It’s strange when circumstances become, all at once, tragic and blessed. It can be hard to reconcile two opposites with the same energy – each remain two entities traveling along parallel lines, absent of each other, with the silent burden of trying to reconcile.

Loss is hard to bear and I find myself lingering needlessly in survival mode, doing only the bare minimal to make it through. Except I’m already through it, Fall is heavily upon us and Winter soon approaching. How long am I going to linger here?

It’s not so easy to do a thing if necessity isn’t fueling the motivation. So I find myself just here. Wistful, processing; blessed with a great many roads to take, cursed with a great many roads to take….

Maybe it’s time to choose one path…but I hate the idea of losing all the other roads.

I hate the idea of loss.

I need to unfix my position on the map. Perhaps if the one path doesn’t satiate then I can find my way back through the woods…perhaps not. Either is better than just standing here. Right?

I know, I know, marriage would alleviate so many multiple movements forward, clear the peripheral to some extent and bring the benefit of ‘2 putting 10,000 to flight’, albeit, there is the complexity of the human being which then must be taken into account. Nevertheless, I feel the approach of one to share my life with drawing nearer. Whether he is before me on one of these paths or behind me moving at a quicker pace I cannot tell. Maybe I’ll hide as he passes me by–

God will lead the way forward, opening doors I didn’t know existed and closing all the peripheral distractions. He remains steadfast beyond the confusion of the season stirring within my soul.

I’ll find the path His light is illuminating and forsake all the rest. What credit would there be in following my own path and losing my life? So instead I’ll lose all my paths and gain His life. That’s a better proposition.

Featured Image by Ales Krivec

Novel Research Pinterest Page

I have created a Novel Research Pinterest page for the science fiction novel I’m writing. This is a simple compilation of my thought process, research and scientific data consulted over the past several months.

It’s nothing fancy, I’m simply including links to articles or videos so that if anyone is interested in the direction and themes I’m exploring in this book, they can find them here.

The research categories are:

  • Physics Biology & Science General
  • Humans & Technology
  • Earth
  • Galaxies & Stars

Here is the Pinterest link:

@IlluminatedManuscript

I’ll be updating when I have the time, and dropping some excerpts over the next several weeks also. Hope everyone is enjoying the Summer weather. I feel I’m melting here on the eastern side of the u.s:)

Looking Into Deep Space

It’s fascinating the things I find myself peering into when writing this Science Fiction Ghost Story. I am relaxing into the process now that I am seeing the fruit of my labors. Writing a novel which entails deep space exploration has been a challenging and enlightening endeavor. Writing a novel is the process of turning chaos into prose – nearly impossible really. But I’ve decided to relax and enjoy the things I love while I write. One of which is space.

This planet scientists call ‘Poltergeist’. It’s a super creepy Pulsar planet documented PSR B1257+12 c, and is an extrasolar planet approximately 2,300 light-years away”….

Other wonderful mysteries of deep space are lurking within the coffers of the web. If I’m going to traverse the galaxy, I figure I better understand our own Local Group first. Vast and various are the Lord’s magnificent displays…

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has captured Saturn’s rings backlit by the sun and our planet Earth and its moon in the same frame. We look like another star from 898 million miles away.

Take a look at our vast Milky Way and beyond to our closest neighboring galaxy, Andromeda. Let’s take a weekend trip, what do ya say? Pack a light picnic; the particle accelerating spacecraft is outback…

I have nearly completed the second draft which fleshed out the story and characters bringing the theme into greater form. My third writing will be adding the voice and writing the novel. I’m excited!

Hope everyone is enjoying Spring. When my mind and pen are not among the stars, I am enjoying the green grass and bird songs of the season…

Have a beautiful week lovely people, and don’t forget to look up and admire the great expanse above our heads~

If you want an excellent book on the writing process, Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft is a good start.

The Unpardonable Sin Explained

Here’s the biblical understanding:

The unpardonable sin is impossible for a believer to commit. Here’s why; the Pharisees knew and admitted that no other but God could be performing all the miracles that Jesus was performing. We know this because Nicodemus, a devout Pharisee official said so, “Rabbi,we all know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” (John 3:1-2) He was like a spy that ratted out the enemy’s war room talks. 

Further more, the Pharisees hated Jesus because they were losing ‘followers’ to Him which meant less money for them and less power over the people. (There are a ton of these like-spirited people around, the first found in Cain.) Envy, hatred and jealousy drove their motives. 

So, in the hearing of the people (hoping to turn some back to themselves) they proclaimed: “It is only by Beelzebul,the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons…” Matthew 12.24.

The unpardonable sin was this: they knew it was the Holy Spirit who was doing the work through Christ and spoke directly against God. Forthrightly calling the Holy Spirit to His clearly discernible face that He was the devil.

As believers (and unbelievers, because they are ignorant, so even if they did this they would not understand Who they were doing it to – “forgive them Father for they know not what they do”) this sin is impossible to commit.

Only knowingly, deeply malevolent individuals are capable of committing the unpardonable sin.

Featured Image by: Jon Tyson

Focusing on Writing the Book

Writing the book

Making Some Hard Choices

This site has been a blogging diary more than anything. After much thought, I’ve decided that in order to get anywhere, I need to focus on one thing. Writing the book. I’ve got just over a year to do it.

I’ve missed blogging these past several months. Due to art and writing submissions to publishers and galleries, I changed my blog to resemble a website for less clutter and easier navigation.

Reorganizing the Blog

I have organized this blog by categories at the bottom of the Home/About page. There is no longer a Home page with the most current blog post. Some I have removed and made private to keep things cohesive and not just a barrage of random thoughts. I have also included a Search field in the top right corner if there is a particular subject or post you want to read.

Bringing It All Together: Narrowing the Focus

I enjoy exploring topics that are conventionally at odds with each other: Christianity, Science and Art. This combination is hard for most people to assimilate. I understand that.

I am extremely difficult to sell as a whole package. The world is shifting to extremes and I am a creative, open-minded moderate politically. Who also believes in Christ.

I have made a few other decisions which I’ll share at a later time if they work out. One is starting another private blog to delve into these themes and narratives for the book and organize them. I won’t be making this public until I’ve finished writing the book anyway.

I have written the first draft. Now I have to begin the hard work: finding the voice of the thing and rewriting it a second time. This is not going to be easy.

We must stay curious and adventurous, learning all we can in this journey of life. Be well beautiful people~

Nature: A Gift that Gives Back

Super tree structures, in Singapore’s Tree Grove garden

“We may think of nature as being unconnected to our urban spaces. But trees have always been an essential part of successful cities.”

Why Cities Need Trees, TEDEd shortdoc

God’s Ideas Work

The idea of letting things function as intended – how God created them to function – has become a point of political contention. It should instead be celebrated for the pure wisdom that it is. As the population of the earth grows, we need to put more thought in how we develop our environment around us. Culture always leans more to profit than to sustainability. I think there’s room for both.

History has many lessons to teach us – we just aren’t listening. We aren’t paying attention.

Below is a great little video about how important it is for communities to work in harmony with nature to create the best possible outcome for us and for our environment. And coming from me, I can assure you, that is no political statement.

I believe God, who created everything, knows exactly how to balance the earth and all her complex inner-workings, even after all the destruction humans have caused. So why don’t we let nature do her thing so we can all live happier lives while we are here? Is it greed? Is it lack of foresight? We have plenty of history to guide us in more fruitful directions. Perhaps it is the need for gain that leads us to destroy nature for profit.

Money is not the nature of evil. So much good can be done with money. It is the LOVE of money that is the nature of evil. This mentality is one that will destroy all just for financial gain or power.

Singapore’s Tree Grove

I pray we don’t become like Easter Island, or Uruk as mentioned below, or any people who thought nature was only for personal profit and not respect it as the brilliant idea God intended it to be.

To have nature work for us, and thereby profit us without destroying it, just seems like the best idea to me.

Instead we pave over everything, build over everything and we don’t do it in sustainable ways. For instance, Singapore has constructed manmade tree terraces, if you will, but they serve a ‘green’ purpose by acting as solar power energy and also allowing nature to grow up the structures, thus providing a cooler shade than brick and concrete buildings. Not to mention they take it further as a practice in sustainability.

You can read more about Singapore’s Tree Grove here: Gardens by the Bay

For the Greater Good

I wish that the topic of nature hadn’t become so politicized. (Everything it seems has become politicized.) How admirable to see when thoughtful people actually do something for the greater good of everyone; using nature to give back to the people in a community instead of hijacking an opportunity to line one’s own pockets. Generosity – it’s rare nowadays.

Most of the time we only see huge companies taking advantage of what should be something communal and beneficial, and instead turning it for a profit – pitching the idea like it was for the people to begin with: here’s this great thing for you, ladies and gentleman, and it will only cost you $$$ out of pocket whenever you want to enjoy it. What a deal!

Let’s be honest, most of the time only those with money can enjoy it.

But those few who do it for all, including the less fortunate; the ideas that are all inclusive for the benefit of the community and the environment…well…it doesn’t get more admirable than that.

Nature is a gift that will keep giving back in positive, beneficial ways.

National and Public Community Parks

One of the few places anyone could go and find solace in the year 2020 were parks. Albeit, even they were closed for a couple of months. Not being able to get out into nature was hard on the soul. Everything is connected and we are much healthier as individuals when we have access to nature. There’s something to be said for experiencing wide open spaces, starry skies and the sounds and smells of nature. Not to mention the therapeutic qualities of water in any form: rivers, streams, oceans…

Manmade is just a subpar trinket compared to God-made brilliance.

That’s why developing in these protected areas makes me nervous and of course, sad. Look what happened with Pigeon Forge in Tennessee. Now the same is being developed in the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. The jobs it provides will be good income for struggling families, yes. But these people could move to another part of the state. Couldn’t they? Where do we draw the line on destroying nature to provide profit?

I think that being conscious of our impact on nature is simply good stewardship of all that God has given us to enjoy.

Anytime we can correct our mistakes as a society; turn our overdeveloped, manmade, unsustainable ideas back to nature, back to trees and gardens and open skies, we can only expect that nature will return a gift back to us in the form of increased health, happiness and greater connectedness overall.

And that has nothing to do with politics.

Featured Image by Timo Wagner 

The Cachalot Whale, Peaceful and Extraordinary – and Hunted to its Death

Moby Dick by Herman Melville, 1851

During my unplugged week I read Moby Dick by Herman Melville. It was a fascination – like experiencing a bizarre traveling circus that only appears after midnight.

The whole book filled me with sadness. I’m reading it with 170 additional years of history and knowledge and I think; the suffering we inflicted on entire species of whales in the name of profit and indulgence. And then I think, in what ways are we doing the same thing now in 2021? How about plastics and oil for starters…

I never formally studied this book so I have no preconceived scholarly analysis. The endless exposition that was a mix of fact and speculation was just boring. I have to attribute my attitude to that 170 year chasm. I wouldn’t have been any wiser at the time.

I’m too sensitive when it comes to animals to ever be able to admire Moby Dick and appreciate the story. All I could think about was how wrong humankind was about the nature of whales and God…how wrong we still are in some cases.

A Leviathan?

Leviathan was not a whale. The peaceful, curious nature of whales was all I could think about when reading how Melville described the beast Captain Ahab hunted – and I couldn’t separate the author from the ruthless nature of the Captain.

Below is the Sperm whale (wholly misnamed out of ignorance); and the demon, the monster, the man-killing beast from hell, the Leviathan that Melville described…and this was all I could think about while reading Moby Dick:

The Light Bulb – the Bright Idea seekers

The whale population was being decimated. In 1835 the first constant electric light was demonstrated. It took 44 more years of scientists tinkering with the bulb device before a usable one was created in 1879. Thank God someone was striving for a better way. Reminds me of electric cars and Elon Musk. Reminds me of anyone launching out against the flow in pursuit of a better world.

But humankind continued hunting whales for profit, some countries even now continue. (Sometime in the year 2100, But humankind continued using gasoline and oil for cars….)

I really can’t enjoy this book. I know it was about revenge; I know it was about deeper symbolic references of man and their madness to dominate. It didn’t move me. Maybe it wasn’t supposed to. Maybe Herman just wanted to incite me, end of story.

Some Decent Prose When Not Choked by the Exposition

There were only one or two portions that gripped me and really pulled me onto the deck of the ship, in all her fiery madness. Here is one of them:

“…darkness was licked up by the fierce flames, which at

intervals forked forth from the sooty flues, and illuminated

every lofty rope in the rigging, as with the famed Greek fire.

The burning ship drove on, as if remorselessly commissioned

to some vengeful deed. So the pitch and sulphur-freighted brigs

of the bold Hydriote, Canaris, issuing from their midnight harbors,

with broad sheets of flame for sails, bore down upon

the Turkish frigates, and folded them in conflagrations.

“…as their uncivilized laughter

forked upwards out of them, like the flames from the furnace;

as to and fro, in their front, the harpooneers wildly gesticulated

with their huge pronged forks and dippers; as the wind howled on,

and the sea leaped, and the ship groaned and dived, and yet steadfastly

shot her red hell further and further into the blackness of the sea

and the night, and scornfully champed the white bone in her mouth,

and viciously spat round her on all sides; then the rushing Pequod,

freighted with savages, and laden with fire, and burning a corpse,

and plunging into that blackness of darkness, seemed the material

counterpart of her monomaniac commander’s soul. So seemed it to me, as I stood at her helm, and for long

hours silently guided the way of this fire-ship on the sea.”

-Excerpt, pg 398 Moby Dick

In Conclusion

This book could be 200 pages; better yet, a short story. The overindulgent exposition and the fact that it was a true horror story of the slaughter of such a beautiful, peaceful animal, killed my soul and any hint of enjoyment for me.

One more extraordinary clip of the beautiful cachalot, it’s accurate name…enjoy

Stay safe beautiful people, stay extraordinary – even if the world would rather you not be~

Featured Photo by Samuel Bryant, 1956